Grounds maintenance utility vehicles, such as the Toro® Workman®, are well known. These small vehicles have an operator compartment that carries a driver and a passenger in a side-by-side seating arrangement. A bed is provided on the vehicle behind the operator compartment for carrying various equipment, supplies, tools, and the like, which are useful in establishing, maintaining, renovating and grooming landscapes and ground or turf surfaces. Various ground grooming or working tools or implements, such as sprayers, spreaders, topdressers, aerators, and the like, may be coupled to or carried on the vehicle according to the operation the user wishes to perform.
Traditionally, utility vehicles have been provided with side-by-side seating for two people only. There is a market that is smaller and less predictable for utility vehicles having two rows of seating for carrying four people. In order to serve this market, some manufacturers of utility vehicles have manufactured and stocked two separate vehicles, one having a two seat configuration and the other having a four seat configuration. However, due to the less predictable and harder to forecast four seat market, the manufacturer is presented with an unpleasant choice. The manufacturer can build a large number of four seat utility vehicles and risk overbuilding with the attendant financial costs that are imposed if excess inventory results due to weaker than expected demand. Or, alternatively, the manufacturer can be conservative in the number of four seat utility vehicles that are built and risk not being able to satisfy unexpected customer demand. This invention is directed to removing the need to make this choice while satisfying whatever customer demand for four seat utility vehicles might appear in the market.
In addition, the standard bed provided on the vehicle is fairly short, typically four feet in length from front to back. This limits the load carrying capacity of the bed. A longer bed could theoretically be used to replace the standard bed, but the extra length would simply be cantilevered off the rear end of the vehicle. Such a cantilevered portion of the longer bed would not be properly supported and may cause the bed to fracture if large loads are placed atop the cantilevered portion. Moreover, such a cantilevered portion would increase the risk of hitting something during tight turns of the vehicle. Accordingly, it would also be advantageous to be able to use a longer than standard bed on a utility vehicle without facing the above-noted problems.